ARE MEMES AN ART FORM?

Ah! The classical memes that have taken the world by storm have proven to bring laughs in everyone’s life. They reveal a whole new way of thinking. Do memes take real life events and convert them into relatable art?

"Meme" is derived from the Greek word "mimema", meaning "something imitated”, presented by Richard Dawkins in 1976. Dawkins described memes as a being a form of cultural broadcast, which is a way for people to transmit social memories and cultural ideas to each other. Not unlike the way that DNA and life will spread from location to location, a meme idea will also travel from mind to mind.

Meme usually referred to as internet memes, have appeared to be one of the biggest global sensations. They contain humorous content through pictures, text, GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) or videos; taken out from television shows, movies, social media etc. This content attracts a huge audience due to the relevance it plays in people’s lives, current affairs, politics and every other aspect.

What is their use?

You may be asking why people use memes or even bother to make them. Basically, memes are what binds the internet community together, without much disparity. They convey a feeling of humor and understanding inside jokes within the community. Furthermore, memes can be understood through all your cultural ideas extracted from years of watching Television and browsing social media. Also, many marketers also use memes to promote their products due to the potentiality of memes going viral in the internet.

The advantages of using memes, is that they can put forth complex ideas into simple text which really catches the attention of people. Moreover, every other person on the internet can make these, but only the creative ones go viral. In this age, it is compulsory for every being to know recent memes enough, to continue an interesting conversation.

Are memes an art form?

Being able to make content out of creative social ideas is worth a fortune when it comes to art. Most modern art has evolved into stripes of color with little to no imaginative views. Then memes come in, which when deciphered, reveal a whole new way of thinking.

But again, some memes have turned out to show their dark side, which really promotes discrimination and profanity. Traditional artists create better, aesthetically pleasing art that puts memes into shame.

However, memes need more thought and effort to break through the internet. They bring people together and in a way, present universal brotherhood. Thus, having seen the different forms of art, memes can potentially be called creative art.

Fun fact: The “Pepe the frog” meme, originated in a comic by Matt Furie called Boy's Club, became an Internet meme when its popularity steadily grew across Myspace, Gaia Online and 4chan in 2008. It was the first meme to be officially declared dead when Furie killed Pepe in his comic.